Hide Advanced Options
Courses - Spring 2025
INST
Information Studies
Open Seats as of
12/21/2024 at 10:30 PM
INST388G
"Maker Movement" Approach to Computing; Seeing the Internet
Credits: 1
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
What is the physical reality of Internet infrastructure? Are bits material? Where is cyberspace? How do devices (like desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, servers, switches, routers, firewalls), connected via links (like copper cables, optical fiber, electromagnetic waves), enabled by water and power utilities, act together as a system? We will trace the physical and logical paths that Internet traffic takes through links(connections) and nodes (devices). We will also consider the impact of the growing Internet on other infrastructure, such as the vast increases in electrical power required by cloud-based artificial intelligence. Through a combination of in-person and online experiences, we will learn "to see better the Internet around us" and to share models of, and stories about, how the Internet as a system works end-to-end. We will explore how the material nature of digital computing and the "geography of the Internet" can inform approaches to personal expression, understanding systems prototypes, and decreasing the digital divide.